Thai banks join forces against money laundering

BANGKOK, February 9 (TNA) - Thailand's government and commercial banks have joined forces in countering money laundering resorted to support transnational terrorist gangs. Chartchai Payuhanawichai, President of Government Savings Bank (GSB), and Vitai Ratanakorn, Director and Acting President of Islamic Bank of Thailand (iBank), signed an agreement on the cooperation in Bangkok on February 9. Under the agreement, GSB and iBank will work together to support the Thai government in preventing and cracking down money laundering attempts through information exchange on suspected cases. The agreed information exchange cooperation, under the Big Data network, is in response to more money laundering cases through online banking services. Meanwhile, GSB has also joined forces with 40 universities to organize vocational training programs for local low income people in 14 areas who each earn less than 30,000 baht a year and have registered for welfare benefits provided by the government, along with granting them more monthly allowance, from 300 baht to 500 baht each. (TNA)